NYU Researchers Identify Process Producing Neuronal Diversity in Fruit Flies’ Visual System

“Our research uncovers a process that dictates both timing and cell survival in order to engender the heterogeneity of neurons used for vision,” explains NYU Biology Professor Claude Desplan, the study’s senior author.

The study’s other co-authors were: Claire Bertet, Xin Li, Ted Erclik, Matthieu Cavey, and Brent Wells—all postdoctoral fellows at NYU.

Their work, which appears in the latest issue of the journal Cell, centers on neurogenesis—the process by which neurons are created.

A central challenge in developmental neurobiology is to understand how progenitors—stem cells that differentiate to form one or more kinds of cells—produce the vast diversity of neurons, glia, and non-neuronal cells found in the adult Central Nervous System (CNS).

Temporal patterning is one of the core mechanisms generating this diversity in both invertebrates and vertebrates. This process relies on the sequential expression of transcription factors into progenitors, each specifying the production of a distinct neural cell type.

In the Cell paper, the researchers studied the formation of the visual system of the fruit fly Drosophila. Their findings revealed that this process, which relies on temporal patterning of neural progenitors, is more complex than previously thought.

They demonstrate that in addition to specifying the production of distinct neural cell type over time, temporal factors also determine the survival or death of these cells as well as the mode of division of progenitors.

Thus, temporal patterning of neural progenitors generates cell diversity in the adult visual system by specifying the identity, the survival, and the number of each unique neural cell type.

The research was supported, in part, by a grant from the National Institutes of Health (R01 EY017916).

Media Contact

James Devitt newswise

More Information:

http://www.nyu.edu

All latest news from the category: Life Sciences and Chemistry

Articles and reports from the Life Sciences and chemistry area deal with applied and basic research into modern biology, chemistry and human medicine.

Valuable information can be found on a range of life sciences fields including bacteriology, biochemistry, bionics, bioinformatics, biophysics, biotechnology, genetics, geobotany, human biology, marine biology, microbiology, molecular biology, cellular biology, zoology, bioinorganic chemistry, microchemistry and environmental chemistry.

Back to home

Comments (0)

Write a comment

Newest articles

Speaking without vocal cords, thanks to a new AI-assisted wearable device

The adhesive neck patch is the latest advance by UCLA bioengineers in speech technology for people with disabilities. People with voice disorders, including those with pathological vocal cord conditions or…

New yttrium-hydrogen compounds discovered

Researchers at the University of Bayreuth have made a significant scientific breakthrough by discovering new yttrium-hydrogen compounds having serious implications for the research on high-pressure superconductivity. High-pressure superconductivity refers to…

New AI model detects ninety percent of lymphatic cancer cases

Medical image analysis using AI has developed rapidly in recent years. Now, one of the largest studies to date has been carried out using AI-assisted image analysis of lymphoma, cancer…

Partners & Sponsors